WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2007
The summer has been an interesting one. I was getting fed up with the Logan scene, so I decided that a change of pace would be good for me. So after much frustration, I found a spot in West Yellowstone, Montana to spend my summer days working long hours.
It has been lonely at times because I came here knowing absolutely no one, but the loneliness hasn’t been as much as in the days when I returned to the United States after living abroad. I have found friends in my roommates and coworkers as well as a few through the local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It has been really neat to meet people from all over the world. That is one of the things that I had loved about being a missionary in a foreign land, and I still love it a great deal. I have met more Britons up here than I have in the two years since I have been home. I have met many people that know my father and my extended family, since they are from Ashton, Idaho, which is not far away.
There was a wild fire up here, although I think it is now gone. It grew to be 36,000 acres and came within a mile of city limits. Our apartment was full of smoke two mornings in a row because we had left the windows open.
A few weeks ago I started a second job at the Stage Coach Inn, which is one of the older Hotels up here. I am a front desk clerk, which I really enjoy. Having the second job has brought my hours up from eight a day to twelve. It is pretty good to only be working half days.
I took some time off this last week to go down to Utah. I did this for a number of reasons. One was to attend the farewell talk of a friend and former neighbor of mine who is headed on a mission to Argentina. Another was to speak to an advisor at Utah State University, so I could figure out some of where my academic career is headed.
The last reason was to see my friend and former roommate, Sam Weber, off to Medical School. It was really good to see him, although I really wasn’t able to have much conversation with him since he became engaged while I was down there.
Sam and I had an interesting relationship. We knew who each other was since elementary school, but we became roommates in the spring of 2006, and then at the start of Fall Semester we became room-roommates. I enjoyed Sam’s humor for most of the time we were together, although he did take it too far sometimes, at least for my tastes, which led to some tense time periods.
He became a better friend to me than I ever let on. I am very glad that I was his roommate and friend. I admire him and I also envy him for his many talents and abilities. I think I’ll miss him quite a bit when I travel back down to Logan to go to school.
I have now been back from Utah for close to two weeks. I saw the new Harry Potter movie and I was quite impressed with it. It was the only movie that I have seen since coming home from my mission that I had to see it more than one time in the theatre.
Speaking of Harry Potter, I bought the last book the night it came out, and I read it within two days, finally finishing at 1:30 Monday morning. I was quite happy with how everything ended, although I would like to know more of what happens to the characters in their lives after the series. There was a lot of action and a lot of surprises in that book, I am impressed that things wrapped up as well as they did.
I now have about a month before school starts, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and to be able to study and go to school rather than just work.
